Rights, works, recordings: the basics before you sign

Before legal vocabulary, there is a simple distinction. The work is the song: melody, lyrics, composition. The recording is the fixed version: that day’s voice, those players, that mix.

The two do not automatically travel together. You can write without recording. You can record a song you did not write. A label that actually works has to know what it is talking about — and so do you.

We will not write a contract for you here, nor legal advice. We are only saying this: do not sign anything you cannot explain out loud. If a sentence is vague, it is not “technical”. It is dangerous.

Knowing who wrote, who sang, who paid for the session, who owns what — that is not cold paperwork. It is what keeps a song from breaking later, when it finally starts to live.

At Ginie Prod, the conversation about rights is not a trap at the end of the road. It is part of respect. A blurry commitment is not a commitment. It is a debt waiting to happen.